Erin Pettengill is a missionary nurse through Mission to the World (MTW), the mission sending arm of the (PCA). I have been a Registered Nurse for over 20 years. My family and I served in Honduras for 7 1/2 years where we were involved in Medical/Mercy Ministry, Street Children, English classes, Kids Club, and Church Planting. We are now serving in Equatorial Guinea, Africa in medical/mercy ministry and biblical teaching.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

accion de gracias (Thanksgiving) part. 1

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and it's a great time to reflect on what to be thankful for. The Pettengill family has so much to be thankful for it's hard to start. Our families are first and foremost. Their emotional support to us has been awesome - it keeps us going. Our friends, and our church are the other two important things we are so thankful for. The love we have received and are still receiving from friends are incredible! Friends that rush to send us stuff we are "missing" or "need" is awesome! Knowing that someone is praying for us everyday is such a huge blessing to us. Other friends we have met through our itineration process, and other churches that have picked us up as family without a second thought. God is good to bring so many incredible people into our lives. So for that, we thank God everyday.

So what is Thanksgiving in Costa Rica like? Well, as it's not a recognized holiday here, many, many people don't even know about it. The reason the school knows about it, and all of our teachers is because 90% of their students are from the USA. So, we still have school, I actually have a test tomorrow. Madison is in school, and I'm sure we will all have homework. However - we do get out an hour early, and Madison gets out 3 1/2 hours early! So, there are some good things.

So what about a turkey? Well, for a medium sized turkey that won't fit in most ovens because the ovens are so small, you can get it for about $40.00. We will be eating at our neighbors house - along with 5 other families. So - it's going to be a big "family" afterall. I'm making pumpkin pie (try that in a country that doesn't eat pie - so doesn't even know what a pie plate is), also try making it without evaporated milk (had to use condensed milk, and mix it with regular milk...hmmm...). The canned pumpkin, cranberry sauce, and stuffing mix came from my awesome mother-in-law - she sure came to the rescue. Someone will be bringing green-bean casserole - try that without cream of mushroom soup, or onion topping, or for that matter, canned green-beans - only fresh ones can be found around here. Someone else is also bringing sweet potatoes - but of course you can't find those here either - there is some other type of tuber that (kind of) tastes like sweet potatoes, but it's white, not orange - should prove interesting. And marshmallows for the top? Well...you can find colored ones ANYWHERE - but white ones are going to be hard to come by - so we shall see.

All in all, it will definitely be an "American" Thanksgiving, but also definitely have a Costa Rican flavor to it. Now all we need are fried plantains and mango salsa. Stay tuned for tomorrow - I'll have some pictures to share from the event.